Eat fish! Fish makes an elegant and easy first or main course. Our favorite menu is fresh poached salmon, roasted potatoes and a green vegetable.

Chicken and turkey are also healthy choices. Cook your chicken soup early, refrigerate it overnight and skim the hardened fat before serving.

Substitute a portion of whole eggs with egg whites in your Passover cooking and baking. Two egg whites are equal in volume to one whole egg.

Use oil rather than margarine for cooking and baking. Extra-virgin olive oil is healthiest. Walnut and peanut oil, if available, are also good choices. Don't use cottonseed oil, which is high in saturated fat and can contain pesticide residues. Avoid margarine altogether in baking by using recipes based on nuts, like macaroons and nut-based cakes.

Keep meals easy and light. There's no need to prepare huge amounts and endless varieties of food -- for any holiday!

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy Passover.

Chana Rubin, RD

Sweet and Sour Braised Carrots (Parve)

This recipe uses a technique called braising – first sauté the vegetables in oil and then add a small amount of liquid to finish the cooking. The result is a crisp-cooked vegetable in a flavorful sauce.

Line a roasting pan or large cookie sheet with foil or parchment paper. Place the fish on the pan and pat dry.

Chop the nuts coarsely in a food processor. Add the herbs, olive oil, salt and pepper and process until the mixture forms a paste.

Spread the nut paste evenly over the fish. Bake for 15-25 minutes, until the fish is cooked through.

Serves 10-12

Turkey Breast with Fresh Herbs (Meat)

Transform ordinary turkey breast into holiday fare with lemon juice, olive oil and lots of fresh herbs. For a large crowd, use a whole turkey breast and double the amount of marinade ingredients. Just be sure to start the recipe well in advance, as the turkey needs to marinate for 24 hours.

Process all of the ingredients except the turkey in a food processor until the mixture is fairly smooth.

Put the turkey in a glass or other non-metal container and pour the marinade over it. Make sure that the marinade covers all of the turkey. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours.

Preheat the oven to 425 F (220 C). Remove the turkey from the marinade and place it on a roasting tray. (Save the marinade for the sauce; see below.) Cook for 20 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 400 F (200 C) and cook until the turkey reaches an internal temperature of 160 F (71C). Let it rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

Pour the marinade into a small saucepan and cook for 15 minutes or until it's reduced by about half. Serve with the sliced turkey.

Featured at Aish.com:

About the Author

Chana Rubin is a registered dietitian. She studied at Oregon State University and Oregon Health and Science University and has taught nutrition and healthy cooking in the US and in Israel. Chana has three sons and one granddaughter and lives with her husband in Beer Sheva, Israel. Her new book, Food for the Soul - Traditional Jewish Wisdom for Healthy Eating, was recently published by Gefen Publishing House. You can reach Chana through her website at http://www.healthykoshereating.com.

Visitor Comments: 19

I missed the recipe for using egg whites as an alternative for margarine.Please list again,Thank you

(17)
Elizabeth S.,
March 15, 2013 5:20 PM

Are peanuts kitniyot?

Thank you for all the wonderful ideas? One thing - Many people view peanuts as kitniyot and don't use them for Passover.

(16)
TOBY,
April 10, 2011 5:17 PM

egg and margarine substitutes

thank you so much for addressing the use of margarine in kosher cooking. most kosher recipes use margarine, which is so bad for you. The chemical laden dairy substitutes in much of kosher cooking also needs to be addressed. Thank you also for the egg substitute, esp for Pesach dishes. More kosher websites need to reflect these healthy eating practices.

(15)
menucha chwat,
March 11, 2010 9:23 AM

fennel

fennel is on the OU kitniyot list.
http://www.oukosher.org/index.php/passover/article/9691

(14)
Nechama,
March 9, 2010 10:09 PM

Passover LITE

EnLITEned Kosher Coking is not "NUT" free but it is the only Kosher diet cookbook that is adaptable for Pesach with more than 140 kosher for Pesach recipes and Gluten free---our web site has updated information to help ontrol diabetes during the holiday and all year round www.jewishdiabetes.org

(13)
Sandra Pickett,
April 4, 2009 10:03 PM

wonderful!

THE RECIPES ARE WONDERFUL!!! thank you shalom

(12)
Myra,
April 3, 2009 7:35 AM

Passover recipes

My granddaughter has an allergy to nuts......Is there a recipe book for Passover that is nut free???

(11)
Dvorah,
April 1, 2009 12:26 PM

Mitzvah

It's a Mitzvah to enjoy with te best that you have, If the best for you are vegetables, fish or fruit, there's no question. Sometimes people forget what the Creator give to Adam and Eve to eat? It wasn't a steak. He create everithing are we trying to say that part of he's creating is not good for enjoy and make it special for Iom Tov, What aboutto elevate the food with the blessings. Looks that we are loosing the point. The Rab Kaduri "ZLB was vegetarian. Do the meat eater have any objetion with this?
And the bottom line, enjoy with the Jag is much more that eat and sleep. Jag Sameach.

(10)
Anonymous,
March 31, 2009 12:44 PM

meat not a mitzvah for women

The halachah does not state that women should eat meat, simchah is halachichally what makes a person happy. I know that meat does not make me happy and thank G-d, my husband also knows that being healthy makes him happy.

(9)
Diana,
March 30, 2009 8:23 PM

Another alternative to nuts

I used crushed potato chips as a breading for baked chicken pieces. I haven't tried them on fish, but I will now. Great article!

(8)
Anonymous,
March 30, 2009 2:22 PM

disappointing

It's very disappointing that people need to be told to eat fruit and vegetables on Yom Tov. Surely substituting poultry and fish for large quantities of red meat is also basic common sense - although one should bear in mind the mitzvah of simchas yom tov, which is fulfilled by eating a kezayis of red meat during the daytime of yom tov. Also i am not aware that there is any problem with ashkenazim eating fennel - maybe the commenter meant that fennel seeds might be problematic.

(7)
Aryeh,
March 30, 2009 11:51 AM

Fennel / Salt

Fennel seeds are ruled by the Mishnah Berurah to be avoided. The bulb is permitted. And the Rama permitted the seeds too.
The turkey recipe includes salt. We get enough salt in kashered turkey and don't need to add any more when cooking.
btw: The plural of Yom Tov is Yamim Tovim.

(6)
Rich,
March 30, 2009 10:11 AM

Fennel is not prohibited to Ashkenazim

Per OU site, Fennel is not Kitniyot and is ok for all Jews, not just Sephardim. Your site needs to do a better job screening posts so that uninformed readers are not misled.

(5)
Anonymous,
March 30, 2009 7:14 AM

Fennel is acceptable for Sephardim, not Ashkenazim

I believe that the Fennel is one of the foods which are acceptable for Sephardim, and not Ashkenazim. Also, be super careful on Pesach regarding examining the fresh greens (parsley, dill etc.)

(4)
Gisele,
March 30, 2009 6:52 AM

Thanks fpr providing us with healthy, and

inexpensive recipes that will make our sedarim, and meals easy to digest and manage.Have a great Peasch to all!

(3)
Anonymous,
March 29, 2009 2:41 PM

the taste of family recipes

I'm always faced with a quandry before all the Yom TOvim but especially Pesach. I want to stay on the healthy eating track but I also like to share the taste of family recipes from less health conscious generations with my children. So I compromise and make less of those items so that they get the taste of Bubbie's specialties amongst the more healthier choices.

(2)
Anonymous,
March 29, 2009 11:44 AM

not good for allergic families

Unfortunately relying on nuts as a cake/cookie base and as a breading is impossible for those with children allergic to nuts. I use spiced mashed potato flakes as a breading instead.

(1)
Gitta,
March 29, 2009 9:54 AM

way to go

From a nutritionist perspective this is great advice.
thank you for these great suggestions. I wish we could convince people to eat in a lighter way. Why waste time and calories on fancy and fattening desserts, when Hashem gave us a bounty of fruits and vegetables in all colors and shapes, that alone should be enough to satisfy every palate.

I've been striving to get more into spirituality. But it seems that every time I make some progress, I find myself slipping right back to where I started. I'm getting discouraged and feel like a failure. Can you help?

The Aish Rabbi Replies:

Spiritual slumps are a natural part of spiritual growth. There is a cycle that people go through when at times they feel closer to God and at times more distant. In the words of the Kabbalists, it is "two steps forward and one step back." So although you feel you are slipping, know that this is a natural process. The main thing is to look at your overall progress (over months or years) and be able to see how far you've come!

This is actually God's ingenious way of motivating us further. The sages compare this to teaching a baby how to walk. When the parent is holding on, the baby shrieks with delight and is under the illusion that he knows how to walk. Yet suddenly, when the parent lets go, the child panics, wobbles and may even fall.

At such times when we feel spiritually "down," that is often because God is letting go, giving us the great gift of independence. In some ways, these are the times when we can actually grow the most. For if we can move ourselves just a little bit forward, we truly acquire a level of sanctity that is ours forever.

Here is a practical tool to help pull you out of the doldrums. The Sefer HaChinuch speaks about a great principle in spiritual growth: "The external awakens the internal." This means that although we may not experience immediate feelings of closeness to God, eventually, by continuing to conduct ourselves in such a manner, this physical behavior will have an impact on our spiritual selves and will help us succeed. (A similar idea is discussed by psychologists who say: "Smile and you will feel happy.")

That is the power of Torah commandments. Even if we may not feel like giving charity or praying at this particular moment, by having a "mitzvah" obligation to do so, we are in a framework to become inspired. At that point we can infuse that act of charity or prayer with all the meaning and lift it can provide. But if we'd wait until being inspired, we might be waiting a very long time.

May the Almighty bless you with the clarity to see your progress, and may you do so with joy.

In 1940, a boatload 1,600 Jewish immigrants fleeing Hitler's ovens was denied entry into the port of Haifa; the British deported them to the island of Mauritius. At the time, the British had acceded to Arab demands and restricted Jewish immigration into Palestine. The urgent plight of European Jewry generated an "illegal" immigration movement, but the British were vigilant in denying entry. Some ships, such as the Struma, sunk and their hundreds of passengers killed.

If you seize too much, you are left with nothing. If you take less, you may retain it (Rosh Hashanah 4b).

Sometimes our appetites are insatiable; more accurately, we act as though they were insatiable. The Midrash states that a person may never be satisfied. "If he has one hundred, he wants two hundred. If he gets two hundred, he wants four hundred" (Koheles Rabbah 1:34). How often have we seen people whose insatiable desire for material wealth resulted in their losing everything, much like the gambler whose constant urge to win results in total loss.

People's bodies are finite, and their actual needs are limited. The endless pursuit for more wealth than they can use is nothing more than an elusive belief that they can live forever (Psalms 49:10).

The one part of us which is indeed infinite is our neshamah (soul), which, being of Divine origin, can crave and achieve infinity and eternity, and such craving is characteristic of spiritual growth.

How strange that we tend to give the body much more than it can possibly handle, and the neshamah so much less than it needs!